The Ladies of Outpost Omega One
by Ruby Blue Prime
Summary: Miko experiences a rebirth. With this comes a new body, a new life, a new name, and a new relationship with the last person she'd expected. AutobotMiko x Arcee
1. Before it All

Disclaimer: I do not own any variant of Transformers, but I did quite enjoy Prime, so thought I'd try my hand at a fic. I do not own anything here you recognize.

Prologue: Before it All

The ride from Autobot Outpost Omega One to Jasper, Nevada was quieter than normal for all involved. This was due to neither of those along for the ride being with their normal partners. Miko Nakadai sat astride the back of a blue racing bike, her slim arms wrapped around the midriff of a woman in leathers. The setting sun cast the flat, desert landscape in a brilliant crimson.

"Miko, you need to adjust your arms a bit, they're inside Sadie." A clear, feminine voice issued from the bike radio." Miko craned her neck, looking around the taller female in front of her to see that her arms were indeed inside her skin. She grimaced and adjusted their position.

"Not my fault, I can't see around her and there's nothing to feel, so I'm doing the best I can back here. Couldn't you make her solid or something, Arcee?"

"Did you seriously suggest that I have a hard light component to my holographic rider? That would take up too much space in my chassis, involve invasive surgery, and would be an unnecessary drain on my energon."

"It would help with your disguise."

"In what way? Since I'm always with Jack, I seldom need Sadie and when I do use her, noone tries to touch her."

"Whatever, can we at least listen to some tunes for this long ass ride?"

"Not a chance, you are not using my radio to listen to that screaming you call music. And the ride from base to your host parents house is only 20 minutes if the traffic is decent."

"Bulkhead lets me listen to my music."

"Bulkhead isn't here. I am."

"Did Ratchet really need him? Couldn't you have helped out instead?"

"Me? Hold up the ground bridge rings? I'm too short and Bulkhead has considerably more brawn than I do."

"Heh, darn right you're short. Even Bee is bigger than you are and he's a scout."

"Femmes generally aren't as big as mechs, and I'm a two wheeler besides."

"Still short."

"Compared to another Cybertronian, yes. Compared to you, I'm enormous."

"Must be cool to be an Autobot. You're big, and metal and you've got, like, built in weapons and junk and you wreck shit up on a regular basis." The sudden turn in the conversation threw Arcee for a bit, but she retained her cool.

"Miko, we've been at war against our own race for as long as humans have had civilization. Those built in weapons have been stained in the energon of many others like myself. That 'wrecking shit up' we do is life or death struggles against those who would be our allies if not for Megatron. I have known nothing but war for so long, you can hardly imagine, so be quiet and think next time you want to say something!" The generally stoic Autobot Second in Command was actually losing her cool, not something that happened very often. Unless Airachnid was involved, of course.

"You don't have to yell, I'm not stupid! I know war sucks."

"No, you're not stupid, you just don't know when to shut up sometimes. You're talking about things you can't even begin to understand. You're always making noise, whether it's from talking non-stop, playing your guitar or some other act born of some idea from your random brain. For once in your life, just stop talking!"  
"Better than you! You've got three settings; Smug when something goes your way, pissed off when you're talking about 'Cons and mopey whenever someone brings up Cliffjumper or what's his name." Arcee's response to this was a hard right off the road, with Miko actually tipping forward a little and falling through the Sadie hologram. Arcee pulled in behind a rocky outcropping and stopped, the kick stand flipping down.

"Get. Off." Her voice was as cold as deep space and Miko scrambled off. The moment the teen's weight was off her saddle, Arcee shifted forms, assuming her natural shape and turning her back to the young woman. She placed her right servo against the rocks, leaning on it, her left clenching and releasing as she fought down her temper. When she spoke again, it was through clenched denta. "His name was Tailgate He was my friend and he died in front of my optics. When you say his name, you say it with respect." She whirled around, getting down to one knee to look the much smaller girl right in the face, her blue optics blazing. "Do you understand?!" Miko knew she was in the wrong, but her stubborn pride wouldn't let her openly admit it. She stared back for several seconds before giving a small, curt nod. Arcee hung her head for a moment before turning into a motorcycle again. "Get on. It's another 5 minutes to your host parents house. I won't talk. You won't talk." Miko climbed back on, and the rest of the ride was awkwardly silent. When she got off, neither turned to look at the other, Miko simply entering the house while Arcee pulled away, headed for the KO Burger to pick up her normal partner after his shift.

* * *

The following days were awkward between them as neither really wanted to talk to the other. They would very pointedly not address the other, making the guys wonder exactly what was going on. Optimus could have gotten the exact problem out of them, but he felt it better to let them work out their own issues. It was a week later that everything changed. Bulkhead accidentally broke Ratchet's nano-spanner, something that couldn't be replaced with the technology at hand. They were all stumped as to where to get a piece of Cybertronian hardware on Earth when Bumblebee had an idea. An excited series of clicks, whirrs and beeps ensued. Ratchet, ever the Fallen's advocate, shot it down.

"The Harbinger? That crashed Decepticon ship in the mountains? They would have picked it clean." Optimus, the voice of wisdom, put forth his thoughts.

"Not necessarily, old friend. They would have taken anything of real value, but bringing simple tools may not have occurred to them. There may be something else there that could prove useful to us. We have to investigate. The ship is abandoned, so we should be safe from attack. We will bridge there and split up, we will each look and see if there is anything useful to be found, with special care taken for any tools for Ratchet." Ratchet had already set the ground bridge coordinates and the familiar swirling vortex appeared, with 4 titans stepping through, followed closely by two much smaller forms, one of them following the other to try and make sure she didn't get herself killed. Upon appearing on the other side of the bridge, Miko ducked behind some rocks, preparing to sneak aboard the derelict ship to meet up with Bulkhead or just to see what there was to see. So intent was she on watching the progress of the Autobots toward the crashed hulk, that she didn't see Jack come up behind her and grab her by the shoulder.

"Miko, do yo really have to do this every time? One of these days you're going to get yourself, or one of us, killed." She scoffed.

"If you're so scared, you don't have to follow me."

"Yes, I do, one of us needs to be responsible and try and keep you from getting stepped on or blasted."

"Alright, if you're so intent on following, at least try and keep up." She turned on her heel and dashed off toward the ship, her taller friend close behind. Seeing as the ship was in Africa, their cell phones were way outside of reception range, so their only way back to base was to get one of the Autobots to call Ratchet to open the bridge.

* * *

Inside the ship, the 'Bots had split up, each heading for a different wing of the ship to try and track down anything they could re-appropriate and bring back to base. They were unaware that the ship's singular denizen had seen them entering. Being unable to reach the ground bridge controls, and missing his T-Cog, Starscream did the only thing he could really do; he hid. Arcee opened a door to find a room with a number of protoforms. She quirked an optic ridge; this certainly qualified as useful. If one of them was very badly injured, they could make a copy of themselves via a protoform, and with their low numbers, that was an invaluable asset. She lowered her blaster arm, reverting the appendage to her servo, completely unaware that Starscream had hidden himself in a storage locker not far from her. He knew if he could grab her, her allies would prioritize her safety over his capture and would allow him to get to the groundbridge. He sat in his hiding hole and waited. He was nothing if not patient, after all.

* * *

Miko ran through the hallways, her canvas sneakers not creating enough noise to warrant her sneaking. If the 15+ foot tall robots could sneak up on one another, no way they'd hear her. Jack kept up, trying to grab the girl without having to tackle her to the metal ground. Miko couldn't hear any of them, so she picked a random direction and went that way.

* * *

"Arcee to Ratchet, I've found five unprinted protoforms. They're on a rack, so we should be able to move it." A pause as he responded. "I know. UnderstAH!" She was cut off as Starscream tackled her from behind, wrapping her in his long arms and trying to use his superior size to get her under control. What he didn't account for was that Arcee had trained specifically for something like this, and began using leverage to move her smaller frame around in the grapple, managing to push him off her, sending him stumbling in the direction of the rack, one of his sharp wings piercing the second protoform from the right through the spark chamber, ruining it. He ducked low and came back in, trying to take her pedes from under her. His clenched servo impacted her face as her leg impacted his midsection, sending them apart, this time with her in the direction of the rack. Still bent over from the kick, he raised his arm, the omnipresent rocket there firing off, only to be dodged as the femme swayed her body to the left. It instead impacted the second protoform from the left, the explosion destroying it and the one on either side of it. Realizing her blaster was unsuited for these close quarters, Arcee extended her arm blades. She closed the gap, swinging her right forearm at his head plate, then her left at his chest plate. He ducked his head, the right blade slicing the top off his head spike, then knocked the left wide with his own forearm, which is when everything went to hell. With her left arm on a wild swing, Arcee kicked out with her right leg, taking her lanky foe off his feet. She felt some resistance before her arm came to rest and heard a scream that made her energon run cold. For the barest of moments, time seemed to stand still before everything happened at once. Jack darted forward from the open doorway while Bulkhead burst through the opposite one with Bumblebee immediately behind. Arcee whipped her head around to the left to see her left arm blade covered in dark red, the same dark red that spattered the chest of the last remaining protoform, coming from a long, deep gash on Miko's chest as she lay sprawled across its shoulder, gasping for breath with half of each of her lungs destroyed. Arcee froze in place as what had happened seemed to take eternity to come to her, shock setting in. Starscream made to get up and head for the door, but found himself staring down the barrels of Bumblebee's stingers, a no-nonsense expression in the young scout's optics. Bulkhead looked from Miko's mostly dead form to her blood soaking Arcee's blade, an expression somewhere between rage and grief on his face.

"Arcee! What did you do?!" Without thinking, the wrecker barreled past, his heavy fist slamming into the still shocked femme's face. He gently pulled Miko from the unmoving protoform and dropped to his knees, cradling her in his massive servos with Jack reaching his side heartbeats later. This is the scene Optimus Prime entered to; his scout holding a slightly battered prisoner at blaster point, his second in command flat on her backside, staring at her blood covered arm, and his largest warrior holding one of their human friends as the light quickly faded from her eyes, another looking on with his face shadowed and unreadable. The last of the primes adopted a look of deepest sorrow as he stepped in to the room, making his way past Bumblebee and Starscream to where Bulkhead was. He knelt down, looking over the green wreckers shoulder at the pale girl, fighting for breath. Arcee recovered and stood looking over his other shoulder an emotion dark beyond black on her horrified face. Miko looked up into all of their faces, Jack peering over the edge of the servos. She opened her mouth to try and speak, but all that escaped was a gurgle of blood and her last breath. Hazel eyes slowly shut and Miko Nakadai passed from this world.

A/N: I know it sucks, I know they're out of character. If you have any suggestions, I'm wide open. I just wanted to use this chapter to lead in to the story itself. I've seen a bunch of 'Jack becomes a Cybertronian' stories and I figured it was time Miko got some love too. Some of you have already guessed how the rebirth is going to come about, so I'll leave it at that. Remember, if you can think of a better reason to have Arcee and Miko pissed at each other or any way to fix any part of the chapter, just let me know, I'm not too proud to take suggestions.


	2. The First Generation

Disclaimer: I don't any variant of Transformers. Anything you recognize isn't mine.

Chapter 1: The First Generation

Ratchet opened the ground bridge at the spot Arcee had been when she contacted and was shocked to find that the first person to come through was the former Decepticon second in command, followed by a dour looking Bumblebee.

"Bumblebee, what...?" His words died in his voice box as Optimus came through in as unhappy a mood as the aged medic had ever seen him, with a similarly expressioned Jack walking alongside. For something to affect Optimus so deeply was certainly concerning. He nearly tried to ask a question again, but it was answered when Bulkhead came through, walking more gently than he had ever imagined the brute to be capable. He was carrying something so gently in his servos, it may well have been made of glass. There was a small riot of colours, but the most noticeable was red. Ratchet's optics widened as he realized that he was looking at one of their human friends, or her corpse, as the case were.

"M...Miko?..." He glanced to his right, seeing Raf perched upon the cement wall, swinging his short legs, computer on his lap. No one spoke as Bulkhead covered the distance and laid the pathetic form on the medical berth, dropping to one knee and bending over the still body of his friend and partner. It was several seconds later that Arcee came through the portal, the last protoform leaning carefully on her shoulder and her expression utterly blank. She deposited the empty shell nearby and closed the bridge. She had returned her arms to their normal configuration, but some red still coated her left arm plate. Ratchet looked around at the various grieving Autobots and allies.

"What in the Pit happened out there?!" Bumblebee began leading a pleading and cajoling Starscream to their vaults in order to lock him in stasis. Once again silence reigned. Bulkhead's right servo clenched and his optics screwed shut tight, and Optimus simply glanced at the only one present who could really answer that question. Arcee dropped to a seated position, slumped over with her back against the rough stone wall, mirroring the stance of the protoform she'd carted back.

"When I got cut off, Starscream jumped me. We fought, and most of the protoforms got destroyed. I took some swipes at him with my blades and he knocked my left off course. It hit Miko. I...I killed her..." With that, she climbed to her feet and adopted a stance akin to a marrionette with its strings cut, looking at her allies. The lower corners of her optics had taken on a slight energon glow, a Cybertronian equivalent to openly weeping. It looked almost like glowing tears collecting, unshed, in a human's eyes. She turned away and headed down the hallway leading to their private quarters. Optimus looked after her before turning his gaze back to the other assembled, locking with that of Jack, a young man, little more than a sparkling even in the context of the much shorter human life cycle, but one who he had come to consider a prime among humans. More passed between the two than an outsider could fathom before Jack hopped down from the berth and departed for Arcee's room. The leader of the Autobots watched the young man depart, his view lingering on the protoform leaned against the wall. His sharp eyes caught something; the protoform and he turned, going to investigate.

* * *

Jack stopped in front of the huge steel door leading to his partner's private quarters. He could hear crashing, thuds and bellows of rage from within. He waited for a brief pause in the sounds of destruction before pressing the console to cause the heavy portal to slide open. He entered to find a heavily scuffed Arcee slumped on the ground, resting her back against her berth. Her desk, wash station and the other accoutrements that showed someone lived in the room were in various states of disrepair or outright destroyed. She didn't move a part as he entered, simply rolling her optics in their sockets to see who it was. When she spoke, her voice was tense and clipped.

"Go away Jack. Get far away from me. I couldn't stand to hurt you." He pressed forward undeterred.

"I know you would never hurt me. Please Arcee, you don't have to deal with this alone. I don't blame you, and I know Miko wouldn't either. It was Starscream's fault." Her servos gripped at her helmet, the slender tips of her digits scratching her paint a little.

"I would never hurt you if I could help it. But I wouldn't hurt Miko if I could help it either, and look!" She thrust her stained arm in his direction. "She's gone, and her blood is on my servos." Her arm fell limp before she pulled it back to her lap. "Primus, I didn't even like her that much, but I feel worse than I ever have. I might not have intended it, but I ended an innocent life. I'm a monster."

"That fact that you believe that proves you aren't. It hurts now. We're all hurting, and I can't imagine what you're going through, but in time the wounds will heal. The others need you."

"Why are you being so calm about this?! Jack, do you realize how easily it could have been you laying out there?!"

"If you don't like me being calm, what would you prefer I do?"

"Shout at me! Run away! Berate me for my carelessness! Something!"

"If Optimus were here, he'd be doing exactly what I am right now. This isn't you. You're strong. You don't let anything keep you down. You wouldn't hide in your room like a scared little sparkling." He stopped for a moment, blinking away tears. "You need to go out there and say your goodbye. You need the closure. Yes, it was a terrible accident, but you need to get your closure and use this to fight harder in the future. The Decepticons don't care about innocent lives, which is why our entire race is counting on you five to stop them. You're not going to do that by wallowing in self pity."She sat still for such a long time that he almost thought she hadn't heard him, but eventually she did shift, moving him aside and getting back to her pedes. She turned to the door and slow, deliberate steps began to carry her back to the common room, Jack following.

* * *

Back in the common room, Optimus' absence from the cluster of grievers was noticed by Raf.

"Optimus." The wise leader spared one last lingering glance at the still protoform and its impromptu partial paint job before turning, noting that everyone had turned toward him at Raf's word.

"Ratchet, does this protoform look right to your trained eye?" Ratchet adopted a look of confusion as he strode to his friend's side, kneeling down in front of the slim body. His optics widened then narrowed.

"No...It's too thin, too short and it has some colour. It almost looks like..." His optics snapped wide and he looked up at Optimus. "Optimus, do you think...? I mean, it almost looks like it's trying to, but that's not possible."

"We've never had one exposed to these particular conditions before. It very well could be." Bulkhead's fist smashed against the concrete wall over the berth, showering Miko's corpse with a fine layer of powder rubble and knocking Raf off his feet with the impact.

"What the scrap are you two talking about?!"

"Bulkhead, Miko might not be dead forever, but she would be irrevocably changed." The green Autobot looked gobsmacked, this being when Bumblebee returned from dropping off Starscream in their holding cell. He'd caught the conversation and issued a series of sounds from his damaged vocalizer. The medical officer fielded the question.

"Miko's blood sprayed into the spark chamber of this protoform, and it's begun to deviate from the standard shape and colour. It appears as though human DNA can affect a protoform in much the same way as a Cybertronian's CNA. If we give the protoform some energon, it just might form a spark, which would make it alive, and it might be Miko inside."

"So, Miko might come back as an Autobot?"

"I can't be certain. We've never had a protoform exposed to human DNA before, and I suspect ambient energy from the groundbridge might have catalysed the minor changes we've observed so far. It's a theory, nothing more at this point."

"And if it did work that way, we have no indication if Miko's mind would be intact or how she would respond to being an entirely new species, to say nothing of being suddenly biomechanical. We must think on this." Surprisingly, it was Raf who broke the silence.

"I say we go for it. If we have a chance of Miko coming back, she deserves that much." Bulkhead nodded and Bumblebee buzzed in agreement. Optimus looked down at Ratchet who seemed to chew it over for a moment before nodding, his scientific curiosity overcoming him to see the results. Optimus was weighing both options, he had made a conscious decision to allow the others to make this choice. Optimus closed his optics before bending down to pick up the protoform, laying it on the other medical berth while Ratchet grabbed a cube of energon from the medical supplies, hooking it up to a drip to be fed into the blank shell. As they watched, the grey slowly gave way to other colours and the featureless material began shifting into plates. After a tortuously long time, the spark chamber had fully formed but was empty, and the changes had stalled. Ratchet put his digits to his chin in a classic thinking pose.

"Perhaps human DNA is not enough to generate a spark. If we were to inject the form with some energon that's been affected by a spark, it might spur it on. Not enough to fully generate one, but enough to show the body what it's supposed to have." Bulkhead was about to speak up and volunteer some of his, but was cut off.

"Use some of mine." Arcee had reentered the room with Jack at her side and quickly pieced together what was happening from what she was seeing and Ratchet's words. Bulkhead looked ready to open his mouth, but she shot him a look somehow both hard and pleading. Ratchet waited for any objections before approaching the team's sole femme with an energon extractor. Arcee held out her arm, the one still coated partially in Miko's blood, and he withdrew a few splashes of the glowing blue liquid, carrying it over to the potential Autobot to be. He injected it into the protoform and the changes started up again, faster than before. They all gathered around to watch something that had never been seen before in long history of Cybertron.

The most noticeable change was the colour as the grey darkened in places and grew a reddish tint in others. It stopped when the colours had become a bright neon pink and deep matte black with a couple of purple highlights. The shape slimmed and shrunk, becoming shorter and slimmer than Bumblebee in short order, eventually surpassing even Arcee in those dimensions, though not by much. The plain body began filling out, developing defined armour plates, optic ridges, workings and other parts. It was clear that this new Cybertronian, whoever she might be, had taken after her donor as a two-wheeler. The entire transformation had taken over an hour before completing. The new femme was only a foot or so shorter than Arcee and just a fraction slimmer. Her plates were configured differently than the taller femme, with her chest plates coming down further, her feet angling up a little more, her fins smaller and tilted down and a dozen other minor differences, enough to make her look like her own bot, as opposed to a clone. Most noticeable was on her face; the general shape was a bit rounder, the eyes a bit bigger and she lacked the helmet spike and cheek guards, instead having a translucent pink visor with a small dip in the middle, making it look like she had see-through pink bangs covering her upper face and two small fins on the sides of her head, not unlike Miko's pigtails. Of course she also lacked wheels and a saddle, but she hadn't scanned a vehicle mode yet, so that was to be expected. As they watched, the anticipation in the air thickened to the point the boys were afraid to breathe. Suddenly, her visor slid up onto her forehead and her optics snapped open and she sat upright screaming and clutching her chest. With the exception of Optimus Prime, everyone took a step back, watching as she looked down at herself, then at her hands. Her shining blue optics were still twisting and adjusting into focus as she turned her head, looking at them.

"My name is Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots. Do you know who you are?"

"I'm...I'm Miko. I was...on that ship, and there was a room with sleeping bots and Arcee was there, and I snuck up to get a closer look, and then Starscream showed up and Arcee was fighting him and then..." She trailed off, looking back down at her chest again, and when she spoke again, it was in a small voice that wouldn't fit the old 5 foot tall Miko, let alone the new 14 foot one. "Did I...die?" Optimus raised his arm, gesturing in the direction of the opposite berth. She swung her legs off the ledge and stood up, shaky in her new body. She wobbled for a moment before finding her legs and making her way to the berth. She froze as she looked down at herself. She reached down with a trembling servo and traced the terrible gash on her old body with the tip of her index digit. She held that stance for a few seconds before closing her optics and backing away, turning her back on the body that no longer belonged to her with her face downcast. "Did I...suffer?"

"Your death took only a matter of seconds." She offered the much older Cybertronian a wan smile.

"Well, that's good at least. Is there anywhere I can rest, I'm not feeling the best, and I need a bit of time to think."

"Understandable, you've just undergone a tremendous change. We have extra quarters set aside in case any more of our compatriots arrive find one with an open door. Have a good power down, we can determine what will happen next when you are ready."

"Thanks Optimus." She didn't say anything further, preferring to simply turn around and trudge down the hallway, her brand new, unmarked paint job gleaming in the light. She dragged her feet as she walked, her pointed toes scuffing against the hard ground on her way down the halls to the barrack section. There were 5 closed doors and 5 open along the lengthy hallway. She took the second door on the right and smacked her open servo against the button, closing what she was slowly realizing her new bedroom door. She looked about on the berth that was her new bed, the uncovered desk, and the wash space. She sat on the berth and laid back, finding it surprisingly comfortable. She sighed, crossed her legs on the berth and put her right hand behind her head, her left idly tracing the edges of her armour with the tip of a digit. She stared at the ceiling of her quarters, a blank slab of concrete, as were all of the walls except the one across from the door, which was carved from the natural rock of the mesa. Before she realized it, her optics were closed and she powered down, her first sleep in her new body filled with bizarre dreams

* * *

Back in the common room, the others had watched her go, almost second guessing their decision. Jack turned to Optimus.

"Optimus, do you think we did the right thing? Did we really have the right to just bring her back from the dead as an entirely different species." The proud warrior showed his great age in one brief look.

"That is a question I cannot answer, Jack. Perhaps if we could have asked her before we had done it, but that was not possible. It is a moral quandary of the highest order. We will need to wait and see, and offer Miko all the support we can give. Someone will need to teach her how to live as a Cybertronian, how to scan and assume a vehicle form, the capabilities and limits of her new body and, if she decides to take our mark and join the war, how to fight."

"I'll do it!" Arcee's voice brooked no argument on this matter. "We're both femme two-wheelers, we're about the same size and I owe it to her. It's my fault she's like this." No one could deny the logic in her statement, Arcee had provided a basis for her new body, after all, and she was the only femme around. Optimus rested his heavy servo on her shoulder, careful not to damage her graceful fins.

"Very well, Arcee, you will take the lead in helping Miko adjust to her new reality. We are all here to assist as well, if you feel there is any need. Give her time to power down for a while and collect herself. In the meantime, I must have an unpleasant conversation with Special Agent Fowler."

"And why do you need to do that, Prime?" As if on cue, the former US Army ranger stepped out of his usual entrance and stepped forward, leaning on the rail. He was about to follow up with a crack about property damage when his eyes caught on the still form of Miko. He blinked in confusion for a moment before regarding his counterpart with a dire expression. "What the hell happened Prime?! Is Miss Nakadai dead? Did you 'Bots really get a human teen killed?! Do you have any idea how major this is?! I'm going to have to lie to a dead girls parents who live a few thousand miles away about why their daughter died on American soil, and that's not even mentioning her host parents. You've got a lot of explaining to do! All of you!"

"Agent Fowler, it wasn't anyone's fault!" Jack calmed down a little after cutting off the federal agent. "Miko snuck along through the groundbridge on a mission and I followed to get her back. The bots were examining a crashed Decepticon ship and Starscream attacked Arcee. They were fighting and Miko got in the way. If anyone should take blame on this, it's Starscream, but we can't really assign blame on anyone, neither of them saw Miko until too late." Optimus looked down at the young human with pride, he sounded not unlike himself.

"We will follow you on this, Special Agent Fowler. Whatever you decide should be done with her remains and what course of action we should take with our own conduct. We reserve the right to make a decision of what will be done with the captive Starscream, though we are open to suggestions. As you now know the worst part, I will tell you what has just occurred. Through a series of improbably happenings, Miko has returned to life in the form of a Cybertronian, like us." This caused Fowler to lose his train of thought.

"Wait, you're telling me Miko is one of you guys? As in she's a 'Bot?"

"A Cybertronian, yes. She will not be an Autobot until she has joined us officially." The black man raised his hand to his face and rubbed his eyes, grumbling.

"Alright, I guess that's not as big a problem as a teenage exchange student's corpse in your medical bay..." He sighed "I have to go. I'll make some calls and set up a 'car wreck', " He even used the air quotes. "On the highway to explain her death. Someone will be by later to pick up her remains. As for you guys." He paused for a moment. "I really can't fault you guys on your behaviour; you're as careful as you can be and with Miko always sneaking along, it was a matter of time before she got hurt." He groaned, deep in his throat. "I should go, I have a lot of uncomfortable phone calls to make." As quickly as he'd barged in, the man left, considerably quieter. Raf yawned and Optimus addressed the other Autobots.

"It is late, and it has been an eventful day. It is time our human friends go home. Bulkhead, you will drop Jack off. Arcee needs time to think and determine how she will approach Miko when she comes back online. Ratchet, you should check our energon rations, if we're going to have another tank to fill." Bumblebee and bulkhead transformed, with Raf and Jack getting inside while Ratchet departed for their energon stocks, leaving Optimus and his second in command alone. Arcee realized why he'd asked the medical officer to check their stocks; he wanted to speak with her.

"Optimus, I..."

"Arcee, I'm not going to discipline or berate you. It saddens me deeply what happened and I feel for Miko's parents, but I know you did your duty to your utmost ability. What happened was an accident."

"Talking with Jack made me realize that, so why do I feel like there's a slag heap in my tank and a scraplet in my spark chamber? When am I going to stop feeling like this?"

"I have no way of knowing. It might never entirely go away, but feeling like this sets you apart from a Decepticon. It means there is the capacity in your spark to care for those around you. You have taken the first step toward recovery. By giving of your own energon to allow her regeneration and deciding to help her through her reemergence, you are on your way to overcoming the pain." His heavy servo came to rest on her shoulder, a place it had found itself often in the past few hours. "You are strong, Arcee. You have a good spark and there are few I have ever known I would rather have standing beside me in war or peace. You will overcome this and become all the stronger for it." He slid his hand back to his side and stepped past her, in the direction of the rooms. "Good night Arcee, get some rest, you have had a very stressful day. He left the room, leaving Arcee alone in the centre, right on top of the Autobot symbol. He stopped in the dormitory hallway and looked at the door to the room that had previously been open, but was now closed, indicating it to be the one Miko had chosen for her own quarters. He looked at the steel door for a moment, then nodded to himself. "Welcome to our family, Miko. We will do what we can for you." He entered his own room and closed the door behind him.

* * *

Jack climbed out of Bulkhead's front passenger seat and reached in, pulling his backpack out as well.

"See you later, Bulk."

"Bye Jack..." Jack sighed.

"Bulkhead, she's not dead. It'll take her some time, but it's Miko, she'll bounce back. Think of it this way, you'll be able to pal around with her, and she'll be closer to your size, won't have to be so careful." This gave the colossus pause.

"Yeah, maybe you're right. Thanks. Night Jack."

"Good night Bulkhead." Jack slung the pack over his shoulder and Bulkhead took his position on the curb. Jack unlocked the front door and opened it to find his mother on the other side, arms crossed and eyebrow quirked. "Oh, hi Mom." She looked at him for several long seconds before responding. She stepped aside to let him in as she did.

"Jack. What's wrong Sweetie? Why did Bulkhead drop you off? Where's Arcee? And something is wrong, I can see it in your eyes. What is it?" He dropped his pack and flopped onto the couch.

"Okay Mom. Sit down." She pulled out one of the dining room tables and sat in it, her brow furrowed in concern. "Miko snuck along on a mission and got in the middle of a fight between Arcee and Starscream. Mom..." He brought a hand to his head, brushing his hair back, a standard expression of stress for him. "She died Mom. Miko got cut badly and bled out by the time she got back to base."

"What?! Miko is dead, and you want to keep going there and helping and going out into the field?" She let herself shed a tear for the loud, annoying, wonderful girl she'd known for all too short a time. "Why do you have to keep doing this? If I lost you, I don't know what I'd do and...Can't someone else do it?" Jack rose from the couch and embraced his mother.

"Mom, I'm alright. Not always, but sometimes the Autobots do need me. If we fail, the entire planet is done. And...Oh hell, I'll just say it. Miko's not dead anymore."

"What? How can she not be dead any more? That's not possible."

"It's a long story. She's an Autobot now."

"Oh. I...I don't know what to say about that." He leaned in and kissed her on the forehead.

"It's been a long day Mom, I need to get some sleep. I'll see you in the morning."

"Night, Honey..."

* * *

Miko opened her optics and was briefly confused. She'd expected to see the beige ceiling of her room at her host parents house, but instead found herself staring at a blank expanse of concrete. Then it came back to her; the ship, the fight, a new body, looking at her...corpse. She shook her head and sat up on her berth, looking around at her plain room. Maybe she could talk Jack, Raf or Fowler to get some posters or something to decorate, seeing as she was apparently going to be living here. It was still such an alien thought for the young Japanese girl turned giant robot. She had a brief giggle at the thought that she, a member of the culture that had created mecha, had just become one. She stumbled out into the hallway, closing her door behind her. She heard another door down the hall and saw Optimus coming out from his own quarters. He smiled at her and approached.

"Miko. Good morning. How are you feeling?"

"Weird. My legs are longer in comparison to my body or something because I'm having problems coordinating. And I feel heavy."

"Well, you did gain about a ton of weight." Arcee exited her room, which happened to be next door to Miko's chosen one. "Are you feeling sluggish and like you don't want to move?"

"Yeah, kinda." the older femme smiled and beckoned for the younger to follow her to the common room. She sidetracked and returned with a couple of cubes, the smaller individual ones as opposed to the larger storage cubes. She handed one to Miko.

"You're low on energon, which means your systems are slowing down to conserve power. We have to get you set up with a heads up display, even if you decide you don't want to fight, it's got an energon level indicator, among other useful information." She raised the cube in her servo to her mouth and the glowing liquid inside drained out, leaving the cube empty. Miko looked on, confused, looking for an opening on hers to drink like a soda can. Arcee chuckled a little. "When your lips touch the cube, part of it will become permeable, allowing the energon to flow out." The new femme did as she was instructed and was mildly surprised when the liquid started to flow into her mouth seemingly through the side of the container. The sensation when the life giving fluid flooded into her mouth and over her glossa was impossible to categorize. It wasn't quite a taste and wasn't quite touch. It was very akin to the taste of something she really liked, but her brain was processing the information differently.

"Wow, I didn't think this stuff would feel like that."

"Heh, yeah. Energon gives a different feel depending on a number of factors; purity, where and how it was stored, how long it's been since it was processed, what colour and so on. Plus there's other substances that can be added or ingested on their own, usually for recreation. We figure that the differentiating sensation is the equivalent to a human's sense of taste." Miko looked down at the unassuming cube and finished it off, placing the empty shell down.

"So, what was that you said about if I choose to fight?"

"You're a Cybertronian in body, but no one is going to force you to take a logo and fight 'Cons. If you decide you want to help the war effort, we're going to have a lot of work to do to train you to the point where you can do that. As you're small, like me, you're going to be quick, but without a lot of brute force, so I'm the most obvious one to get you trained up in that regard." As Arcee had thought, there was no hesitation before Miko blurted out her response.

"I wanna do it. Do I have any weapons? What do you call your fighting style? Do I turn in to a muscle car like Bee, or maybe a sports car like Jackie? What's that pink thing on my forehead?" She ended this barrage of questions with her optics looking up, having caught a glimpse of her visor. With some energon in her system, and the shock beginning to wear off, she was becoming more like the old Miko.

"You don't have any weapons, because you're brand new; we'll need to get you outfitted before long. You'll probably get some kind of blade for close engagements. With how small you are, you're definitely a two wheeler like me. No way you have enough super-structure for anything bigger than a motorcycle. As for your forehead, before you woke up after the change, it was over your upper face, so we assume it was a visor. It could come in handy; shield your optics from debris or flashes, and we can probably incorporate your HUD into it instead of your optics themselves."

"Cool. How do I..." She stopped talking when the visor slid down into place, looking uncannily like a set of translucent pink bangs. Combined with the little wings on the sides of her head, it really was a little like a Cybertronian version of Miko's hair. She focused for a moment and slid it up and down a couple of times, settling on keeping it up. "So, how do I go about getting the symbol? If you thought I was eager to go out on missions before, you bet your tailpipe I wanna go now."

"As I said, it's going to be a little while before you get out in the field. You're not getting out there until you've trained your saddle off. Speaking of which, we're going to have to out and get you an alt mode. We'll find you a nice sports bike, I don't think a chopper would fit your colour scheme. We'll have to get you a holorider projector too, Ratchet can do it while he's incorporating your HUD and weaponry."

"Where does he get the weapons to put in?"

"We've got a few spare parts around for situations that might arise. I'm sure we've got some blasters in your size kicking around, and it's not too hard to do a blade or two."

"Ooh! Can I get wrecking balls like Bulk?"

"You could, but with how small you are, you wouldn't be able to put enough force behind them to really be effective. A blade requires less raw power. A small cut in the right place can drop even the biggest opponent. As for the symbol, that takes no time, we'll just have to weld it on."

"It's kind of weird talking about welding stuff on to my body." Arcee took Miko's cube and dropped them both in the bin to be reused.

"Come on. We've got to get you used to your new body before we can think about training or weapons." She led the way down a hallway Miko'd never really gone down. It led to a large room which was basically a concrete box. The walls were pockmarked and burnt from blaster fire and the ground had gouges and cracks from the Autobots training, there was an obstacle course. "Run a few laps around the room and get used to the legs, then we'll work on the arms." Thus began Miko's workout. It took a few hours, but eventually the new Cybertronian adjusted to her body and the stumbling, tripping and wobbling ceased and she began to move with fluidity and grace.

* * *

Back in the common room, Optimus had gone to work on a terminal when Ratchet came through. The medical officer looked left and right. He crossed his arms and chuckled.

"This is the first time in quite a while the base has been quiet like this. I can actually hear myself process." Optimus' small smile was hidden as his back was turned to his aged friend.

"Bumblebee and Bulkhead are watching over Jack and Rafael, while Arcee and Miko are down in the training room."

"Yes, our newest 'recruit'. What are we going to do with her? As a human, she was annoying and always underfoot. As she is now..."

"She is one of us. If nothing else, she is a symbol. She is, in her own, unique way, the first Cybertronian born since the fall of our world. She represents the first generation of our future."

* * *

A/N: If anyone seems out of character; Miko is very much one to bounce back quickly, and Arcee and Jack are putting on strong fronts. Optimus is really hard to characterize, but he possesses that unbreakable calm that I feel would allow him to roll with what comes. If you have a question, comment or suggestion, let me know in a review and I'll attempt to address them as they come.


	3. In Disguise

Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers. That is all.

Chapter 2: In Disguise

Jack and Raf, along with their assigned protectors, got to Autobot HQ while the sun was still high in the sky, only having shortly begun its descent to its bed behind the horizon. They found themselves met by a warm greeting from Optimus Prime and a grunt from a diligently working Ratchet. They ascended to the couch and sat, while Bulkhead and Bumblebee lounged nearby. Raf had his laptop out, hunting for Cybertronian sightings on the web and Jack was playing a game, with Bumblebee picking up the controller sized for him and joined in. The femmes entered with Miko moving sluggishly, flexing her stiffened joints; Arcee had been harsh, but she'd gotten her used to using her new body. Raf's computer flipped closed and the game was paused as everyone who hadn't been present in the morning wanted to get a look at their resurrected friend. Bulkhead stepped forward with a thud and Miko looked up at him with a crooked half-smile. The weight seemed to lessen from those present at the flashes of the old Miko showing through in the new one. She leaned against the concrete platform and looked around at those assembled.

"Hey guys. Uh...sorry about freaking out last night. It was a lot to deal with. I'm doing a lot better now."

"You're doing better?" the half-pint hacker interjected. "Miko, you were dead less than 24 hours ago." Miko glanced over to the berth where she had seen her body, but it had been collected by a couple of men sent by Agent Fowler earlier in the day. It was presently winging its way to Japan so her parents could give it a proper burial.

"I've always bounced back quick, and I had a long sleep to think things over. Then Arcee had me running around that damn obstacle course so long I can't even feel my arms."

"Power down."

"Huh?"

"We don't sleep, at least not in the human sense. We power down. That's something else we're going to work on is your terminology. And the obstacle course worked, didn't it? Your coordination is where it needs to be for you to function."

"My arms and legs feel like they weight a hundred pounds each. Wait, they actually weigh more than that, don't they. Do I need a recharge or some energon or something, I'm feeling tired."

"Not a chance, your joints are just stiff. The upside to being as small as we are is energon economy. We need less energon than someone bigger. At some point, we've got to go find you a nice bike for a vehicle mode, then we can go for a ride so you can learn the rules of the road. It's relaxing to go out for a nice long drive on the highway."

"Cool! Most kids my age are studying for their drivers license, I'm going to turn in to a motorcycle." This brought a chuckle from most of the rooms occupants

"We'll go out later and find one, then we'll come back and Ratchet will do your installation." Miko looked a little nervous.

"Uhh...this is going to be my first ever surgery. Are you sure it's safe?" Ratchet looked insulted.

"Miko, who do you think you're talking to? I've been performing operations like this since before your culture met any outsiders. I'm installing a modified HUD, communicator, weaponry and a holorider unit. I could do this with my optics offline. I'm actually insulted that you think I could mess up such a simple operation."

"Sorry doc, I'm just a little nervous. I know you know what you're doin'. When are we gonna do this?"

"We can start now, if you feel up to it. You'll be in stasis for a couple of hours." She thought for a moment, then nodded.

"Alright." Ratchet guided her over to the medical bay and into the pod. He turned around and put up the privacy divider then set the pod into surgical mode, causing it to go horizontal, allowing him access to her entire frame. The head unit flipped up, her optics watching it nervously. He turned it on and there was a red glow, sending her into shutdown. Her optics dimmed and he went to work. Opening her spark chamber, chest cavity, helmet and arms, he went to the cabinet of parts, pulling out what he'd need and sizing it all up against her, putting some parts back and replacing them with others. He poked around in her head, particularly around where her visor was connected to her processor. He watched her energon pump distributing the life blood around her body. He returned to her head and hooked the smallest device he'd grabbed in, just below her processor and wired it to the her visor, both drawing power and sending information to the sub system. On the inside of her head half way up on the left side he attached a small device similar to a more angular kidney bean. He ran a diagnosis and shut her helmet. Next came her chest cavity. He grabbed a vaguely rhomboid item and hooked it in at the upper back. It nestled in, protected by the sturdier alloy of her spark chamber. Finally, he turned to her opened arms. The first to go in were slender cylinders with thicker anchoring modules at the back. These were followed by a pair of long, smooth, slender spikes. Due to the intricate nature of the systems he had to move with a painstaking, deliberate slowness and by the time he began his diagnostic and watched the new parts begin interfacing with their new home, 107 minutes had passed according to his internal clock. He turned her over gently and took a flat unit which attached below her wings, locking into place and blending in with the alloy there. As there were no sensitive internal systems involved in this final installation, it took less time. He turned her back over and reactivated her and, after 114 minutes of stasis, she returned to waking life. Her optics returned to full illumination and twisted, adjusting and coming in to focus like the zoom lens on a camera as they had when she first awakened. She looked up at him as he opened the divider, exposing them both to the attention of the others. She sat up and swung her legs over the edge of the pod berth. "Is...is it done?"

"Yes, everything is installed. Bring down your visor, I hooked your heads up display into that." She swung down her visor and everyone could hear a small, surprised 'oh'. Her optics seemed to widen as she looked at the various readouts. "I didn't know what to give you for weaponry at first. We don't have a spare set of proton accelerator cannons like Arcee's, a single neutrino stinger per arm wouldn't do enough damage to justify the weight on your arms, and I couldn't fit plasma disruptors like Bulkhead and Optimus have. What I gave you are ion blasters, very popular in the earlier days of the war, but many moved on to other weaponry. Each bolt is much smaller than from even Arcee's cannons, but the energon cost is nearly negligible and they fire at a rate of around 1200 rounds per minute."

"So I've got a machine gun in my arm?" She looked at her forearm.

"Pretty much. The ion blaster's an old reliable. Not so effective when you hit the thicker armor plates, but with the sheer amount of rounds it puts out, you have a much better chance of hitting more vulnerable spots. Getting it out is easy enough, you kind of have to just picture it out." Arcee took the moment to instruct her charge and Miko focused, screwing up her metal lips before there was a brief transforming sound and her hand slid back into her arm and the cylinder from before came out in its place, the barrel internally glowing blue, ready to fire. Arcee placed a hand on Miko's forearm and pushed it down. Miko withdrew the guns back inside her "You never pull your weapon unless you need to use it." Ratchet continued to prattle on.

"An ion blaster is lighter than a proton accelerator cannon, but bulkier. Because of this, there was no room for arm blades. What I installed instead was..." There was the very brief sound of transforming and metal sliding against metal and the spikes extended from their sheaths, extending to the length of Raf's body. They came out of the inside edge of her arms so they went past the palms of her servos. She looked at the wicked points on them, tapping the end of a digit against one. "...wrist spikes. Because the spikes are precision weapons and you won't always have a clear shot, I attached a weapon mounting on your back, in case we find you another close range weapon and you need somewhere to keep it." Everyone was so focused on the newly armed Miko, they didn't register Optimus getting a thoughtful look and leaving the room. Miko withdrew her spikes and began trying to look at her back where the mounting was. Around the time she started to look like a dog chasing her tail, Optimus came back, a huge energy axe in his hands. He twisted the handle, causing a button to appear. He pressed it and passed the weapon to Miko. She took it awkwardly, seeing as the thing was longer than she was tall. The blades extinguished and reformed, going from two energy arcs on the front to one, becoming noticeably smaller and then re-energizing in a pink shade. The handle seemed to fold in on itself, becoming narrower and shorter. When it stopped, she was holding a battleaxe, perfectly sized for her. She gave it a couple of slow, experimental swings before noting the motion Optimus was making. She copied him, placing her hand over her shoulder and the blades extinguished as the weapon attached to her new mounting.

"I wielded this axe in the early days of the war for Cybertron. It's a valuable weapon that can resize to fit its wielder, given to me when I first had to take up arms. I only hope it serves you as well as it did me."

"Now that you're armed, we can get you to training with them. A few months and we might just have you ready to be out there fighting cons."

"A few MONTHS?! I was thinking a week or two."

"Not a chance, rookie. It took us hours just to get you acclimated to your body. It's going to be quite some time before you're combat ready. We need to work on basic tactics, group manoeuvres, hand to hand combat, marksmanship, stealth and everything else a scout needs to know."

"Wait, scout? Why not warrior?!" This elicited a chirp from Bumblebee somewhere between angry and amused.

"As an Autobot fighter, your military career begins as a scout, cadet or specialist, depending on frame and skill set. Considering your size and lack of any skills that would make you a specialist, you're a scout. A few centuries of active duty and you'll be up for promotion."

"Centuries?"

"Remember that our lifespan is exponentially longer than that of a human. Bumblebee's easily the youngest of us, and in earth terms, he's pushing a thousand." The new youngest Autobot looked down at her body, finally having it sink in that she now measured her life span in millennia.

"I'm going to outlive everyone I know. I'm likely going to outlive my entire culture. I..." she sat down on the medical berth. "That's a lot to take." Optimus spoke up once more, his deep voice soothing her racing mind.

"Born of Earth, but adopted of Cybertron, you will be the daughter of two worlds. You will have a home wherever we are, and you can watch the progress of your birth world as we fight for ours. Some day the war will be over and we will look to the young to carry us into the future." He looked down at her, his stoic visage radiating warmth, wisdom and a sense of home, helping to put her whirring mind at ease. Arcee tapped her on the shoulder, nodding towards the ground bridge, the coordinates already set.

"Come on, hot shot. I don't know about you, but I've been cooped up the base since yesterday, I want to get out there. I've got it set to bridge us up on top of a mesa overlooking a fairly busy highway. We can camp out there until we see a nice motorcycle for you to scan." She smirked at the smaller femme. "Let's get you some wheels." She pulled the lever and the bridge flashed to life. She raised her hand and caught a bundle, tossed underhand by Bulkhead. It was some kind of fabric, but didn't flow quite right. She stepped through and a once more excited Miko followed. They appeared atop a high mesa with a bustling highway beneath them. Arcee set out the fabric like one would a picnic blanket or beach towel. It was dull grey with a concrete like texture and larger across than Optimus was tall. Over the course of a couple of minutes, it changed colour and texture to match the stone on which they stood until it nearly perfectly blended in. Arcee climbed under and was hidden from sight from above, with her face just short of hanging over the edge. Miko got in under and found that it was surprisingly cool under it, considering they were under the desert sun. She briefly wondered how hot it was and her visor flipped down showing the temperature immediately surrounding her as well as her internal temp. She flipped it back up on to her forehead and looked out over seemingly endless river of asphalt from the high vantage point. She was nearly vibrating at the idea that she would soon be able to transform into a bitching ride.

* * *

The three hours following their arrival on their perch dulled her enthusiasm somewhat. They had been laying there almost unmoving for the entire time and ever energetic Miko was ready to explode.

"This is soooo boring."

"I never said this would be fun, but we need to wait for a suitable vehicle."

"Liar. You've mentioned more than once how much fun it is."

"No, I told you how exhilarating it is to get on your wheels and drive, I'll be the first to admit this part is like watching paint dry. Just tough it out and I know something will come along soon. Hm...Maybe something like that." She gestured with her arm, pointing out a sleek, stylish motorcycle being ridden by a young couple.

"That? I'll admit the body is a masterpiece of Japanese engineering, but the colour scheme! It's green and orange."

"Uh, Miko, you do realize that when you scan it, it will be neon pink and black with purple highlights."

"Oh. Well, how do I scan it."

"Alright, to be safe, bring your visor down." The eye covering swings down. "Now focus on that bike, all of your attention on it. Examine every seam, every plate, every last detail. When you can't see anything but the vehicle, your t-cog should take over and scan it." She looked over and smiled when she saw that Miko's optics had turned entirely blue, the scanning process underway.

Miko stared at the bike, the basis for her coming transformation. She stared at it like an obsessive compulsive at a picture frame, as though she were trying to burn a hole through it with her gaze. Suddenly, it seemed to her that the riders and background disappeared into a field of blue. The bike spun around in her view so she could see it from every angle. It hovered in her sight and started coming apart, the parts floating around in an exploded view so she could see every piece of it. Before her optics, the parts seemed to shift, move around and change shape before reattaching. It took almost a solid minute before the altered parts came fully back together, but rather than reforming the motorcycle, they had become a slightly altered version of her body. The image of her seemed to shoot her a thumbs up before the process ended and the desert appeared before her once more. She looked over at Arcee and smiled.

"Arcee to base, bridge us back." She stood up, grabbing the sheet and tucking it under her arm. The bridge opened behind them and they stepped through, reappearing at base. The vortex apertured shut and Miko looked around to see the guys all staring expectantly at her. Arcee turned to her protege. "Now, to transform, just remember the bike, all those parts you saw, just picture them in your processor. Your t-cog will take it from there." Miko closed her optics and pictured the bike as she'd seen it only a short couple of minutes earlier. Her face screwed up in concentration before the trademarked sound played and her first transformation took place. At several full seconds, it was noticeably longer than most. Eventually though, a beautiful, sleek pink, black and purple sport bike was sitting in the middle of the room.

"This feels so weird. I've never not had legs before." Her engine revved and she rolled forward a few feet. "My head is inside me, how am I seeing?" Arcee reached down and tapped her on the front facing side of her rear-view mirrors.

"Your optics are in your mirrors in this form. You can change between seeing out the front of them or the back." Miko switched back and forth between looking out the front and back of her mirrors a couple of times before she looked at her empty saddle. She focused on it and, without realizing it, pumped a little power into one of the new devices, the one behind her spark chamber. She jumped slightly, at least as much as a motorcycle can jump, as a form flickered into existence on her saddle. A slim woman in a black motorcycle suit with a pink stripe going from her left shoulder straight down.

"Woah! Who's that?"

"That's your holorider, like my Sadie." Arcee proved her point by slowly swiping her arm through the woman's torso. Miko started focusing on the rider, causing her to start moving. She climbed off the saddle, seamlessly climbing off like a real woman, as though she could feel the metal of the bike beneath her. She stood next to the 'bike' looking down at herself before Miko got curious and she reached up, gripping her helmet and slowly pulling up. For several seconds the only sound in the room was a gasp coming from Miko's stereo. There, standing tall and holding her holographic helmet under her arm, was Miko, aged twenty something. Everyone stared at the illusory version of the grown woman Miko would never become who, at the real one's mental prodding, turned to look her illusionary eye to rear-view mirror.

"She's...me..." Ratchet turned from what he'd been working on.

"When I'm in a dark mood, I always find something to work on to get my mind off things, and last night I was in as dark a mood as I can remember. Once you came back, I found what to work on, it was the least I could do for you, to give you your self back."

"You did it for me?"

"Miko; you never stop talking, you're always underfoot and you're so loud that I often can't hear myself process, but you are a dear friend. I took images of you I had on hand and aged them up." Holo-Miko dissolved into motes of light when Miko retook her robot form. She stepped over and embraced Ratchet as best she could given the size difference. He froze for a moment before returning the gesture. When she stepped back Ratchet held out something. It was tiny in his servo, but less so in hers. She held it up to her optic an saw it to be a hot pink Autobot symbol. From behind his back he withdrew a welding unit. Optimus strode forward, his heavy steps drawing Miko's attention. She noted that the expressions had grown serious.

"Miko. You have been given the tools to communicate, defend and hide among humanity. You have begun the training that would be required to fight. This moment can decide the rest of your life. You are a Cybertronian, and regardless of your decision you will be welcome to continue calling this base home. It must be understood that not all of our race have sided with Autobot or Decepticon, but have instead chosen to remain neutral, outside this war. What you hold in your servo is the symbol of our cause, the mark we adopted to set us apart from the Decepticons. Your choice is thus; take the mark and join the war, or remain neutral. Your choice will not be held against you." Miko stared at the symbol before handing it to Ratchet and presenting her shoulder.

"Do it. I said it before, I'm in. Give me a little bit to learn to use my weapons and I'll be out there with you guys." Ratchet guided her to a seat on the berth and bent down over her, welding the symbol onto her wing

"Then we will begin." She felt his enormous servo on her shoulder. "I am Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots. We fight for the realization of certain ideals. Firstly; the freedom that is the right of all sentient beings. Second; the end to hostilities with our brethren. Finally; we fight for the restoration of our home, the resurrection of Cybertron. Will you fight for these ideals?"

"I will."

"Those who surround you are your comrades. They are many and varied but they all seek the same goals. The second in command, Arcee. The medic, Ratchet. The demolitionist, Bulkhead. And the outrider, Bumblebee. Will you fight for them?"

"I will."

"This is Earth, our adopted home, inhabited by humans. Though small, they have incredible potential and I can hardly imagine what they will achieve if given the time to do so. Will you fight for them?"

"I will." Ratchet stepped back and shut off the welder. She looked over and was just barely able to see the symbol grafted onto her wing out of the periphery of her optic.

"Then rise, scout, and welcome to the Autobots." The sombre mood was broken and the others crowded around her. It was a short time later that Bulkhead and Bumblebee drove the boys home and those remaining at base retired to their quarters, it being late at night by that point. Miko lay splayed across her birth, looking at her nearly featureless ceiling. Before powering down, she ran a digit along the symbol attached to her wing, her optics glancing at the axe on her desk, a smile playing across her lips before she shut down for the night. She was in a better mood than she had been since her rebirth, and a single thought crossed her processor.

'Miko Nakadai, robot in disguise.'

A/N: Alright, I know I had you waiting a lot longer for this chapter and it's noticeably shorter than chapter 1, but my life has gotten busier and I can only really write in my spare time. I wanted to use this chapter to set up what will come in the future. The axe Optimus gave Miko is the one he uses in the War for Cybertron game, so google that if you need a better image. The romance aspect will begin setting in in the next chapter, so for those of you drawn her for that, there's something to look forward to. As for her coloration, if you look at Arcee; where Arcee is blue, she's bight pink, where Arcee is silver or pink, she's purple. Also remember that her plates are in different configurations and she is built differently. Finally, I need a little help; she can't exactly keep going by the name Miko anymore, she's going to need a Cybertronian name, but I can't decide what. I'm considering Firefly (because she's small, energetic and brightly coloured), Luminescence (which can be shortened to Lumina) and Hummingbird (again small, never stops moving and seems like she is almost outrunning her mind), but am totally open to other suggestions. Let me know what appeals to you guys, and I'll take it under consideration.

Ann: it seems to me that Miko doesn't really have a fighting style, she's basically a brawler, and we've seen that it's impossible to be a finesse fighter in the Apex Armour, even Arcee was a bruiser when she wore it for the battle of the Omega Lock. Miko having no style mean she's like clay for a veteran fighter to mould and shape, but I've given her an obvious nod to her favourite combat style in the canon. As for the blame falling on Starscream, it really isn't anyone's fault entirely. Miko shouldn't have been out in the open and Arcee should have been more aware of ehr surroundings, but Starscream is an easy target for blame, seeing as he is their enemy either way, but that will be addressed in a later chapter.


End file.
